Shredding `The Ecologist'.

• Author: LILLISTON, BEN
• Position: Printer feared libel suit from conglomerate

The day before the October issue of the London-based Ecologist was to be released, the magazine's co-editor Zac Goldsmith received an unexpected call. Penwells, The Ecologist's printer for the past twenty-five years, expressed deep concern about the content of the issue. Under British law, a printer (as well as retailers and wholesalers) can be held liable for distributing libelous material.

Goldsmith assured Penwells that the new issue had been thoroughly checked and reviewed. He reminded the printer that The Ecologist had never been sued in twenty-nine years, despite consistently railing against multinational corporations for damaging the environment.

But it wasn't just the content of the latest issue that made Penwells skittish; it was also The Ecologist's subject--the multinational biotech giant Monsanto--a company with a reputation for playing hardball with the media. The following day, Penwells asked The Ecologist to send a letter to Monsanto's lawyers requesting that if the issue were considered libelous, Monsanto would agree to sue only the editors, editorial board, and owners. Monsanto refused to agree. The next day, Penwells shredded 14,000 copies of The Ecologist.

Penwells has refused to comment publicly on why it pulped The Ecologist. The printer claims that it was not contacted by Monsanto prior to its decision to shred the magazine. That claim is supported by Monsanto's director of corporate communications in the United States, Philip Angell: "The first we heard about this was when The Guardian [a British newspaper] contacted us about the destruction of the magazine." Angell says it was not surprising that the printer was concerned about the issue's content. "It is pretty inflammatory," he says.

"If it is true that there had been no contact, then that, as far as we are concerned, is even more alarming," says Goldsmith. "That a company like Monsanto can bring about a near-censorship with little more than its reputation puts the very future of the so-called free press into question."

The Ecologist soon found another printer to print the Monsanto issue. But the magazine's troubles didn't end there. Wholesale distributors WHSmith, John Menzies, and Surridge Dawsons all said they would not make the issue available to customers due to potential legal problems. Nevertheless, the issue is in high demand and may require a reprint, says Goldsmith.

But legal action surrounding The Ecologist's Monsanto issue seems unlikely. "We haven't...